Archive for August, 2009

Prospect Heights and Buffalo Grove have been added

Two fire departments have been added to the site, although neither is yet complete. Prospect Heights in Division 3 has 2 stations.  Station 39 has been completed and Station 9 currently has 1 of 7 rigs posted.  The other rigs will follow this week.

In addition, Buffalo Grove in Division 4, has 3 stations.  Posting of the rigs for these stations is not yet complete and some of the data has to be updated for accuracy as well.

Today, our thanks go to Karl Klotz who submitted the bulk of Division 19 for processing and uploading. This will take several days, as Division 19 does not yet even have a MABAS page on the site. Again, there will initially be gaps in the departments. These will be updated when time permits.

Hank Sajovic graciously submitted 115 images of CFD firehouses.  This too will take several days of preparation before all are posted. He commented that roughly 10-15 of these need updating from when they were originally photographed, but he anticipates taking care of this before the summer ends. While we’re on the subject of Hank’s firehouse collection from Chicago, he is planning an upcoming book … to be released in the future.

As visitors to this site, please keep in mind that as we are getting up and running (which will take a minimum of 6 months), we will post the images that are available to us, with the intent that some images will be updated/replaced when we have shots that depict the subject more favorably.  Rigs for example, might be featured showing the officer’s side (which is not the ‘standard’) or on-scene at an incident. Apparatus or stations might have been photographed in less than ideal weather,  or may for some other reason be an image that the photographer would like to improve upon. We have elected to post the images that we have available so that the departments are featured to the best of our ability. When time permits or other photographers submit an image that shows the subject in better light or at a preferable angle, an update will occur and it will be noted here.

The majority of the stations in Division 3 have also been freshly photographed and should be added to the site this week (as time permits) as well.

Readers are encouraged to send comments or emails about apparatus that is on order or that has been recently received so that we can stay on top of the game.

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New additions to Division 1

The Wheeling Fire Department, Stations [gmt ma:-34.397//150.644//8//roadmap:]23[/gmt] & [gmt ma:42.139038899999996//-87.98622370000001//15//roadmap:]24[/gmt] have been added to Division 1 (minus photos of their stations).  The Wheeling listings will change in the coming months as they have broken ground on a new headquarters station.  They will eventually have three stations manned instead of the current two.

Also in Division 1, Arlington Heights [gmt ma:auto//roadmap:]Station 4[/gmt] has been added, with a few images missing.

New additions that are expected in the coming weeks include Division 19 which is being submitted by Karl Klotz and the first upload of Chicago as Steve Redick and Hank Sajovic are assembling station and apparatus photos.

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Website expansion continues.

In the coming weeks there will be quite a bit of activity here as Karl Klotz, Steve Redick, Hank Sajovic and Jack Connors contribute information and images to begin filling out several divisions.  Although we’d like to have complete departments and divisions added at once, the migration of images and information will more likely be in steps as the contributors are able to assemble the submissions. There will be gaps that will have to be completed at a later time.  It is our hope that visitors will be patient as the site grows.

There had initially been consideration that the site would not be active until full divisions were posted, but it seems that there is quite a bit of excitement and interest in getting things going right away.  This means that some but not all departments will have active links.  This blog will provide updates as departments are brought online.  It is easy to determine if a link is active for any department by rolling your mouse over the name.  An active link will appear underlined.

First complete fire department listing is added!

The 3 fire stations of the Lincolnshire-Riverwoods FPD, (MABAS Division 4) have been uploaded to the site!  As there have been ‘Beta‘ test pages previously that did not contain complete information representing the fire department listed, these (3) new pages accurately depict the stations, department patch, demographics and rigs at each site.  There is also a working link to the LRFPD website.

Included with this listing is their newest [gmt ma:auto//roadmap:]station #53[/gmt] at 671 Woodlands Parkway in Vernon Hills, IL  that opened within the past 2 weeks.

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Website continues to grow

Although nobody is reading this yet, the site continues to progress.  A home page has been added along with pages for each of the 6 Chicago districts which further breaks down into battalions and each fire house.  All houses have not yet been added, but the majority are outlined by battalion.

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Web design is coming along.

The process of building a new website from scratch entails quite a bit of planning and layout.  Although there are no active department pages posted yet to the site, the MABAS map and outline pages for 10 MABAS divisions have been completed.

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New website and blog for Chicago area fire departments!

Hello and welcome to chicagoareafire.com, a new website focused on providing a comprehensive listing of every fire department in the Chicago area in a single location.  Each fire department and every station will be illustrated with the current apparatus assigned.

We will use the MABAS Divisions as a basis for organizing the fire departments in Cook, Lake, McHenry, Will, Kane, and DuPage Counties. When all of these departments (and districts) have been posted with their current apparatus, we will begin to add rigs that are no longer in service as well as retired firehouses.

This Blog will provide updates on area fire departments and though the main focus will be apparatus, it’s possible that fires, wrecks and other action images might also find a place here.

As this is a new endeavor, we welcome comments, suggestions and criticisms as we get started.

The blog will be one of the chief means for us to keep readers up to date about new purchases and deliveries in addition to the expansion of fire departments that are uploaded to the site.

Thank you … and welcome!